A New Nightmare
by Anya Maygo
Summary: Everyone's been asking for a sequel to Code:DREAM, and so here it is!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**_Karen_**

I was feeling great this evening! Xana was gone, I was human again and out of the infirmary after three days of rest, and William had invited me to a movie. It was about knights and dragons, so I think he was teasing me. Whatever; I still liked it.

As we walked back to the school, I thanked him for the treat.

"No problem. Do you think we could do that again some time?"

"Hm…It can't interfere with my homework, you know."

"I know. Still…"

"I guess so," I finally teased.

William laughed, and leaned closer to me. I leaned backward – wait: _back_ward? Didn't I _want_ him to kiss me?

William straightened again. "Are you okay?"

I sighed. "Yeah, just a little tired."

"Okay. See you tomorrow!" And he skateboarded off.

I walked in towards the girls' dorms scolding myself. _Ka_-ren! _Why did you have to pull your paranoia reaction again? Will's the guy for you!_

I was still fuming when I went into my room.

"What's wrong, Karen?"

I looked up. Aelita was sitting on her bed, just looking at me. "Didn't you have fun with William?"

I sighed again and sat on my bed. "Yeah…I'm just scolding myself for what I did at the end, right before we parted ways."

"And that was…?"

"He was just about to kiss me, and I shied back. I thought I'd gotten over that reaction to a boy being that close to me!"

Aelita looked sympathetic. I didn't really want pity, so I went to bed.

_A white dragon was flying with her friends, a whole wing of them doing acrobatic stunts in the air. But something was wrong: the white dragon's scales were slowly turning from white to grey to black, and suddenly her eyes went red and she turned and started ripping the wings of her friends! She killed every single one of them and then roared to the sky of her victory – _

I woke up in a cold sweat. I don't remember screaming, but I must've, because Aelita woke up and Sissi came in.

"Are you okay?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I gasped, "it was just a nightmare. I've…never had one before in my whole life, I don't think."

That must have reassured Sissi, because she left. Aelita sat up with me a little longer, and then went to bed.

_What was_ that? _I haven't had a dream like_ that _in three days! And it seemed so…_real!

It took me a long, long time to get back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Night of Discovery

_**Karen**_

I was yawning all through class. In fact, I think I even dozed off in the middle of Math class. Of course, Mrs. Hertz had to make an example out of me because of that.

"Miss Shayli, I understand you had some issues some time back, but that was a week ago, and you need to pay attention now."

I knew what she was talking about. See, I had to tell the teachers about Lyoko back when I was turning into a dragon thanks to Xana's bug and wouldn't be able to get to school without scaring the kids. They'd taken time between classes to see me and help me keep up with my studies even while I had a "case of scales," as Odd sometimes put it, but I was back to normal, which meant I had to pay attention.

"Sorry," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. Glancing to one side, I saw Aelita giving me a very worried look. I tried to smile, but that's kind of hard with a tired face.

* * *

After class, Aelita and I met up with Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy, William, Yumi, and Sissi.

"You actually fell asleep?" Odd laughed. "Wow, I didn't know you fell asleep in class!"

"Not even funny, Odd," I snapped. "I couldn't get proper sleep last night!"

"Of course not," Sissi commented, pretending she was still the mean girl we'd known for the whole time we were fighting Xana, "not with you screaming at four in the morning."

"You screamed?" Jeremy asked, looking concerned.

"It was a nightmare, Jeremy. I'm not used to having nightmares. Remember? My dreams predicted the future, not doom."

Okay, okay, I was a little short-tempered. I don't like being made an example of.

"Well," Ulrich asked, "what did you dream about?"

I sighed. "It was all of us. We…" I stopped. Even as tired as I was, I suddenly realized something: my dream last night had held true with my old future-predicting dreams. You know – dragons as people? But I wasn't trying to slaughter my friends, so it couldn't have been true. Could it?

**_William_**

I didn't like the silence Karen met that question with. "We what? Karen, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, really. I…oh, never mind. We were flying. And then…"

Aelita spoke up. "Ka-REN! Don't keep us in suspense! What happened?"

I was a little surprised that she hadn't asked how we were all flying. Then I realized that I shouldn't be: why _wouldn't_ Karen dream about us as dragons again?

"I…my scales went from white to black. My eyes turned red. And…"

Suddenly, I'd had it with her constant stops. And apparently, so had Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy. "WELL?!?"

What she said next was so quiet that I almost didn't hear her. "I killed everyone I was flying with."

That brought true silence.

I had to ask. "Are you sure it wasn't something from the movie?"

"_Eragon_ wouldn't do something like that to me. It was a lot like the future-predicting dreams I used to have. Only…this one is more like one that's predicting the far future instead of the next day."

Yumi came up with a pretty good solution. "Listen, how about you wait and see if that dream comes up again, and then we'll see what to do about it."

Aelita suddenly laughed.

"What?" I asked. "I missed the joke." Sissi looked just as blank.

"I'm sorry. It's just that Jeremy said almost exactly the same thing when we were talking about bringing Karen into the know about Lyoko, only we were talking about her acting like she had a headache after return trips."

Karen smiled, but I could tell she was still worried. "Hey." She looked at me. "Everything will be fine. Don't worry."

_**Karen**_

Thanks, Will, but that's easier said than done.

Anyway, I survived the rest of the day without falling asleep again. Then I was able to get to bed.

_The white dragon was flying with her friends again. They were doing all sorts of acrobatic stunts in the air. Then, slowly, black slid over the white dragon's scales, her eyes went red, and she thrashed out at the largest bronze dragon, her claws tearing out his throat – _

I sat bolt upright again. This time I know I didn't scream, but _still_!

I was going to kill _William_ first? But-but William was my…my boyfriend! How could _that_ happen to _him_?

Come to think of it…why were my scales turning black in the first place? And what was it with my eyes?

I pulled out a piece of paper from my notebook and turned on my small flashlight. I decided to try to draw a picture of one of my dragon's eyes without waking up Aelita. I sketched as carefully as I could, determining that I wouldn't look at it as a whole until I had finished drawing the whole eye. It didn't take long before I was done, and I shone my light at the whole paper.

And that was when I got chills. For inside that eye was the Eye of Xana!

**

* * *

**

Author's Note:

Oooh, the plot thickens! What could this possibly mean?

And, sorry for the abruptness, but I was a little strapped on ideas.


	3. Chapter 3

A Brand-New Variable

**_KAREN_**

No. No! It couldn't be! Xana was destroyed – I destroyed him myself! And the supercomputer was shut down! How could my dream dragon have the eye of Xana?

I sighed. "Figure it out in the morning." From there, I just climbed into bed.

* * *

When morning came, I went to find my friends. Breakfast was croissants again, and Odd was pigging out, again.

"Good morning, Karen!" Odd mumbled around a mouthful. "How was your dream?"

I hissed softly. I hate people who are cheerful in the morning. Anyway…

"Same dream."

That brought silence to the whole table.

"Again?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah. Does this mean we need to turn the supercomputer back on to run a scan on me?"

"Are you sure we need to?" Yumi asked.

"Here's something I drew from my dream when I woke up." And I slid the paper onto the table. "It's a close-up on my dragon's eye."

Everyone recognized the symbol. It was obvious.

"How can Xana be back?" Ulrich asked. "You killed him, didn't you?"

"I really don't know what I did! I know I freed William, and I know that Xana was gone from Lyoko. But other than that, I don't know!"

Okay, okay, I was a little antsy from a sleep shortage. What do you want?

_**SISSI**_

Karen was worried, it was obvious. But did she have to go so…panicky? She hadn't panicked in the entire time I knew her!

"Wake up, Karen! Just because you had the same dream twice in a row doesn't make it true!"

"Sissi, I've had my dreams come true the day after they happen for years up until three weeks ago! Why _shouldn't_ I think that this dream is the same?"

Right around there, Jim yelled to the lunch room. "All right, kids, settle down, we have a new student that I'd like to welcome to Kadic. Everyone, meet Turner Chase!"

I looked up. Standing next to Jim was the scrawniest boy I've ever seen. He looked like he'd spent his whole life locked away from the sun, with very pale skin. His brown hair was as shaggier than Karen's, and it hung down sloppily over one eye. His other eye was a soft green, and I'm guessing that his eyes match.

And don't even get me started on his outfit! His blue jeans and brown tennis shoes were okay, I guess, but his shirt was black-and-white, and it screamed "Animals don't wear us, so don't wear them!"

As we watched, he smiled shyly and waved at the room in general, reminding me of Karen when she first came to Kadic.

I couldn't resist; I leaned over and whispered to Karen, "Hey look, I think we've found your match!"

Karen spun her head away from me so fast that she hit me with her hair! Okay, I guess I deserved that.

**_WILLIAM_**

Class was uneventful. I did wonder if Karen was feeling all right, I mean with her dreams going weird on her and all. But what was it with the Xana symbol showing up in her dreams? I don't get it, any more than she does.

I hope we can figure out what's really going on.

**_

* * *

_**

KAREN

I braided my hair in the girls' bathroom. Aelita asked me, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I know less about this than you people. There's nothing that can say I'm sure about anything."

We went to bed as usual.

_The white dragon, slowly going black, was growling, almost a purr, to a very skinny brown dragon, and the brown dragon was nodding. Then when the white dragon was completely black, both dragons launched an attack on the other friends – _

I sat bolt upright again. I'm pretty sure who the skinny brown was: Turner. But why was I growling for an alliance, or whatever? This just keeps getting weirder.


	4. Chapter 4

Surprise, Surprise!

**_KAREN_**

I slept a little better last night than I had in the past week, mostly because I had gotten to see several different versions of how my friends could possibly die, and last night was a rerun: one where I had gotten an alliance with William.

"Are you all right, Karen?" Aelita asked.

"I slept better tonight, if that's what you're asking, but I still dreamed of everyone meeting death at my claws."

Turner looked like he hadn't slept too well when I saw him in the cafeteria. Maybe he was still not quite used to the place. I decided to find out a little more about his background and went to sit by him. My friends would understand.

"Hi, Turner."

"Huh? Oh, hi."

"You're a day student, right?"

"Right. I stay at the local orphanage."

"You're an orphan?"

"Yeah. My parents died in a freak accident, and I've just been shuffled through orphanages. Nobody's wanted to adopt me, and I don't know why."

I figured I had a solution, but it wouldn't have been polite to suggest it.

"So…what do you think of this place so far?"

"It's okay, I guess. At least people don't try to make it obvious that they're disrespecting the planet."

"Some…never mind." What else could I say? I don't have experience with fanatics!

"Well, I'd better get back to my friends. Nice talking to you, Turner!"

"Same here…what was your name?"

"Karen."

"Okay, Karen."

* * *

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. Three different teachers wanted to know if I was okay, and Jim was among them. Jeremy did suggest that we turn on the supercomputer to find out what was going on. I didn't exactly think that that would solve anything anymore, and I said so.

"All we'd be doing is releasing Xana into Lyoko again, and we might still not save me. There's…not really anything we can do right now."

"Okay, we'll wait just a little longer before turning it on. But only one more day."

We went to bed.

_The white dragon steadily turned black, and ripped every other dragon apart, without taking alliances. This was the third time I'd seen that particular version. _Make up your mind, _I thought in frustration._

_**I'm trying!**_

_I froze within my own mind. Had I just gotten an answer from that dragon that had been me?_

A/N: I hadn't figured out how to make this chapter longer, so sorry if it's kind of short.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

Disturbing Conversations

**KAREN**

Hello?_ I wasn't really expecting an answer, but I had to try._

_**You can hear me? That just isn't logical!**_

_The dragon tossed its head, looking extremely confused._

Logical or not, I can hear you and you can hear me. Are you Xana?_ I asked._

_**I am Xana.**_

Stop me if I'm wrong, but didn't I kill you back when Lyoko was operating? I pulled you away from William, turned you into a dragon, and blasted you!

_**You struck at me with a highly unstable energy field, which you were still in virtual contact with. I simply followed along its pathway into your digital envelope.**__ The dragon looked extremely smug._

And the results are kind of obvious: you're sitting in my head, coming up with schemes of killing my friends.

_**A necessary process, for my plans.**__ The dragon – Xana – shrugged its wings, completely unrepentant._

WHAT PLANS?!_ I screamed, _You've simply been running in circles over three different scenarios: either you're using me to kill everybody, or you're getting William to help you kill everybody, or you're getting Turner to help you kill everybody! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were suffering from a human affliction called indecision!

_Xana stopped moving completely, looking shocked. __**I…am!**_

What?

_**Apparently, **__Xana said slowly, __**"sitting in your head" is affecting me, just as it is affecting your dreams so that you can speak to me in this manner. I am becoming more…human.**_

_I felt like I was in just as much shock as Xana was at this moment. _Oh, great. Next you'll be saying that you've turned into a girl as well.

_**Um…**__ Xana looked embarrassed. It – she – didn't have to say anything after that._

You've turned into a girl._ The whole situation was completely ridiculous, but it also wasn't time to laugh._ Look, I want you out of my head.

_**Hey, I feel the same way! But I can't do anything until I'm stronger!**_

Stronger, huh? Well, tough, because I don't want you to kill my friends or take over the world, certainly not if it puts me at risk! I'm just a human, and if I start acting crazy, the school will call the police and I'll be put in a rubber room wearing a straightjacket! No thank you!

_**What made you think I was going to use your body as it was to carry out my plans?**_

_That stopped me cold. I knew what Xana was talking about. _You can't. Not again!

_**Oh, yes I can – once I've gotten my full strength back, that is.**__ Xana was nodding in that dragon form, looking even more smug than when she was boasting about how she'd survived, and flexing her claws in anticipation of some later date._

I can't let that happen! I don't want to be a dragon again!

_**What makes you think you have a choice?**_

I woke up with a start. _That can't be good. I've got to tell Jeremy!_

**JEREMY**

Odd was pigging out at breakfast again, and he was taking a lot of Ulrich's food. Though I don't think he noticed: he was too busy staring at Yumi.

Then I glanced up. Karen had come in with Aelita, but she looked very worried. She said something to Aelita, and then walked off in Jim's direction.

Aelita brought her tray over to us. "What's the matter?" I asked.

"She said she wanted to tell all of us about this at once."

William spoke up. "If this is about her dreams…"

"It probably is."

Karen and Jim walked over to our table. "All right, all of you," Jim declared – but in a low voice – Karen must have told him not to broadcast this information all over the cafeteria, "You can skip PE for today. Karen tells me that she has to call an emergency meeting about, uh, Lyoko."

I raised my eyebrows and actually felt the tension build up around the table. Lyoko? Hadn't that subject died back when we defeated Xana?

"Okay, Jim. We'll make up for it later."

Karen grabbed a croissant from Aelita's tray and we all stepped outside. She led us all the way to a bench by the main building.

"Okay, we can talk here," she said, her voice very tense.

Ulrich snapped, "Then spill it. What's the problem?"

Karen turned the croissant over in her hands. "Um…it's Xana. I…spoke to Xana last night in my dream."

**ODD**

I jumped. "You talked to Xana? What did he say?"

"She," Karen corrected. "Sitting in my head for weeks turned Xana into a girl."

That was just too much: I laughed. "What? No wonder we've been having so much trouble with Xana: she was a chick!"

Then Yumi slapped me! "Shut up, Odd! Karen still has to answer your question!"

Karen sighed as I took Yumi's advice. "Okay, um…Xana told me that she couldn't do anything until she was stronger. The trouble is I think I know what she's planning. She wants to turn me into a dragon again, and then go about taking you all down, along with the world."

"She honestly thinks you can do that? I mean, as a dragon you were tough, but you weren't strong enough to conquer the world!" I protested.

"Of course not!" she retorted. "I was alone in my head then!"

That shut all of us up. Even I could picture what Jeremy, Sissi, William, and all those other humans had been capable of when they were possessed by Xana. Put Xana in the driver's seat – excuse me, the cockpit – of a dragon, and there could be some extreme trouble!

"So…what do we do about it?" I asked.

Jeremy sighed. "I don't know, Karen. I just don't know."

William suggested, "Well, Xana's not strong enough to do anything yet, right? We have time to figure it out."

"But not much time, Will," Karen said sadly. "I could hear Xana awfully clearly. It'll probably only be another week, possibly two, before she's capable of shifting me again."

"Well then," Ulrich declared, "we'd better hurry."


	6. Chapter 6

First Scan in a While

**

* * *

**

KAREN

So. What are you considering now? Your usual spiel of killing everybody, leaguing yourself with William, or leaguing yourself with Turner?

_**I'm still attempting to come up with something. After all, whatever I do will be directly influenced by what **_**you**_** all do.**_

Oh, yeah. Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?

_**Yes, that thought has crossed my mind.**__ Then the black dragon spun around, her back to me. __**We have nothing more to talk about. Go back to something resembling true sleep already.**_

That's the best idea I've heard all night._ Then I started trying to ignore Xana and actually sleep._

* * *

The next morning left me feeling extremely worried. It had felt like Xana had landed on something that could "actually work."

Around breakfast, Jeremy announced that we'd be doing the scan. "After all, if we're going to find out how to get Xana out of Karen, we need to know how he – she – fits into Karen's head in the first place."

I sighed. "If we must."

**

* * *

**

WILLIAM

Karen didn't seem too happy about this. "Hey," I said, "I don't think Xana can just leave your head right now, so we won't be setting her free in Lyoko or anything like that. We'll be fine."

"I sure hope so." Then she sighed again. "When are we going to do this?"

"Let's talk to Mrs. Hertz and get away during that class," Jeremy told her. "Yumi, William, I'm not sure if your teachers will exactly let you go that easily, I mean, Karen hadn't briefed them on Lyoko, so…"

"I get it," I interrupted him, "Yumi and I hold back and if you need any help, we bail on class and come to your rescue."

Karen actually laughed.

"What?" _What did I say?_

"You sound about as thrilled with staying back as I am with going, which isn't much."

_Well. At least I did_ something _right!_

**

* * *

**

JEREMY

I went to Mrs. Hertz after lunch. "Mrs. Hertz?" I asked. "Something's come up concerning Xana, so we need to go back to Lyoko to fix the problem. Or at least, well, find out _how_ to fix the problem."

She sighed. "I know what that's like. Finding out what the problem is can be easier than determining how to solve said problem."

_That…didn't sound like Mrs. Hertz_. "Um…were you quoting someone with that?"

"Karen."

_Oh. That _did _sound like Karen. I should tell her that teachers were quoting her. It might make her feel better._ "Well, thank you, Mrs. Hertz."

I stepped out of the classroom and gave a thumbs-up to my friends.

"All right!" Odd cheered. "Lyoko, here we come!"

* * *

We went through the sewers to the factory.

"Brings back old times, doesn't it, Jeremy?" Ulrich asked dryly.

"Oh, heaven forbid!" I answered vehemently. "Almost all those times were attacks!"

"I still don't see why we had to leave Sissi behind," Odd complained.

"Someone had to take notes while we were gone," I explained, "so that we wouldn't fall behind too much."

"Would you rather it was you, Odd?" Karen snapped.

"Um…no."

"I didn't think so."

"Calm down, Karen," I said as I jumped to my cable. "We're all tense."

"Something was wrong with that sentence, but I couldn't tell you what."

I smiled. That sounded more like Karen. "Now, Karen, you go to the scanner room. I'll go turn on the supercomputer."

"Hey, Einstein," Odd suddenly asked, "can't we go, too?"

"I wasn't going to _send_ her there! I was going to run a scan with her in the scanner!"

"Oh, come on, Jer! Pleeeeese?"

"Odd, you're hopeless," Karen protested, "maybe we _should_ have left you behind!"

Well, that shut Odd up, but… "Actually, I don't see why not, but it would mean that Karen would have to actually go to a tower before she could get scanned." I looked at Karen. "What do you think? You're the one getting scanned."

Karen thought about it. "Well…I suppose it couldn't play too far into Xana's claws. After all, like William said, she can't just leave my head."

"Yeah! Let's go!" Odd cheered.

I shook my head and called over my shoulder, "Well, figure out who's staying while I go turn it on."

**

* * *

**

ODD

I immediately volunteered to go with Karen. "After all," I explained, "going was _my_ idea."

Ulrich protested, "Yeah, and you'll want an Overboard to go with it!"

Karen suddenly walked into the center of the scanner room and called down. "Jeremy? Is there some reason why we can't all go? I mean, it's not like you've forgotten the program!"

It was quiet for a minute. Then Jeremy called back, "Okay, I guess you can all go."

"Yeah!" I cheered.

Karen rolled her eyes. I swear, she was radiating unease.

"Come on, Snow-Hair, relax! You get to fly again!" I chirped.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she retorted.

**

* * *

**

ULRICH

I could hear the scanners hum to life, and the elevator go past the scanner room back to the lab. Softly, I counted to three.

"Are you all ready?" Jeremy called down to us.

"Yup!" Odd chirped.

"Send us in, Jeremy!" Aelita called.

"How about you hold back until we all go in, Karen?" I suggested. "I mean, if you're nervous about it."

"Fine."

The three of us stepped into the scanners.

"Transfer, scanner, virtualization!"

The three of us dropped into the forest sector. I looked around and then called up, "Everything's clear, Jeremy! You can send in Karen!"

"You don't need to say that anymore, Ulrich," Jeremy answered, sounding like he was going to laugh, "Xana's not on Lyoko anymore."

"Uh…" _What could I say to that?_ "I guess habits kick in quickly, huh?"

"Heh, yeah. Okay, here comes Karen!"

We all watched as she dropped in. I'd almost forgotten how majestic she looked with those wings.

"Okay, we're in," she said as she stood up and brushed herself off, "so let's just get this over with."

"Okay, okay, Karen," Jeremy answered, "the nearest tower is northwest of your current position."

We all ran off in Jeremy's designated direction. It didn't take long before we saw the tower.

"Go on, dragon-princess," Odd bowed at Karen, "here's your castle!"

"Not even funny, Odd," Karen snapped as she went into the tower.

"Sheesh," Odd protested, "Karen's losing her sense of humor!"

"You can't exactly blame her, Odd," Aelita tried to calm Odd down again, "She has an old enemy of ours in her head that she doesn't want, so of course she's going to be a little sensitive."

I think Odd was going to say something. But I guess we'll never know, because suddenly an energy wave kicked loose from the tower and bowled us all over!

Odd recovered first and yowled, "What was _that_?"

"I'm not sure," Jeremy answered, "but it kind of bugged up the scanning system. I can't run any scans until I remove the bug, and I don't know how long that will take. I'm bringing you all back."

**

* * *

**

KAREN

I wasn't happy. No; _not happy_ is an understatement. I knew exactly what that "energy wave" was: Xana discovering that she had more power inside the tower, and kicking loose a slow-working virus onto Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita. The scan going down was a side benefit as far as Xana was concerned.

"So what in the world was that energy surge?" Jeremy asked.

I sighed. "That was Xana. She released a virus onto you three."

Odd and Ulrich's reactions were perfect: they recoiled away from me, protesting "What?"

Aelita just looked sad. "What does it do to us?" she asked.

"If I knew that, we wouldn't be having this discussion."

"Maybe you can ask Xana tonight," Ulrich suggested, "and squeeze the truth out of her scaly neck!"

_Irritated, are you?_ I thought. _So am I. I might just take you up on that option, if I had hands in my dream._

* * *

_I saw Xana doing backflips in her dragon form._

You've got some canary feathers on your mouth, pussy, _I said in irritation._

_**What? Oh – the cat who swallowed the canary. That's a human expression saying that a person looks smug, right?**_

Don't play dumb with me; after sitting in my head for this long, you probably know all the sayings I could possibly throw at you. What did you do?

_**I made them into dragonspawn,**__ Xana crowed. __**Now sooner or later, they too will turn into dragons!**_

Oh, _come on!_ What could that possibly accomplish?_ I asked in exasperation._

**_That trick depleted my energy supply, so I won't be able to change_ your _shape until I get my strength back up. But once they are fully dragons, and I am a dragon as well…_**

You're going to kill them as dragons?

_**They will be my first victims! And nobody will think that they are anything other than creatures until I tell them, right at the end before I kill them too!**_

Yeah, right! I'm going to tell them what you did, and Jeremy will undo it before it ever comes to pass!

_**I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the transformation can't be reversed. It can only be removed after it is complete, such as yours was.**_

Oh._ Then I got my game back together._ But I can still get them back to normal before you make _me_ into a dragon!

_**Are you truly sure about that?**_

_I didn't answer that. The truth was I didn't know if Jeremy was good enough to remove the dragon from the human before I changed into a dragon myself. He hadn't fixed me that time, either; I'd done that myself._

_Could he really fix that? I sure hoped so._

_

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you, scalec and Martiny! I'm back on track!**


	7. Chapter 7

A New Friend and a New Plan

* * *

**KAREN**

I came to breakfast, and saw that William, Sissi, and Yumi had already been briefed, if the looks on their faces and Sissi's loud screams were anything to go by.

"What do you _mean_, you three have a virus?"

"What they mean," I interrupted, feeling very tired, "was that Xana released a power surge from inside the tower, infecting all three warriors on Lyoko and bugging up the scanning program. She's too weak to do anything to change my shape right now," I added as I sat down, "but the virus she gave you three will eventually turn you all into dragons. Like I was back while William was, um…"

"A dragon? Me?" Odd seemed unnaturally happy with that. Even Ulrich seemed a little interested.

Aelita at least knew that there was a problem with this. "So…what are we going to do about it?"

I sighed. "Xana said it couldn't be removed until it was completed, same as with me."

Jeremy spoke up. "Um, you do realize that had been _your_ actions that deactivated the dragon-virus last time, right?"

"I know. And I'm not even sure _how_ I did it. I'm sorry. You'll have to figure that out, too. Fortunately, I think Xana's going to wait on shifting me until they're at least half-scaled. I mean, well, you know."

Jeremy nodded. "In that case, I'd better focus my attention on fixing the super-scan."

I shrugged. "Okay, you do that, and figure out how we're going to beat Xana out of my head in your spare time."

Jeremy winced. Had I come across sounding too sharp or something? "Sorry, Karen. You know we really do want to help get rid of Xana, but…"

"I know. I've just been kind of short on sleep lately."

We all stood up and separated. I figured Jeremy was going to beg some free time from one of our teachers in order to fix the super-scan. Then I noticed Turner coming over to me, with a determined expression. _Oh, boy_, this _was going to be interesting_.

* * *

**TURNER**

I had tried to follow Karen and her friends after they had an interesting conversation with Jim, but I'd lost them in the park. Now, I wanted to find out what was going on that the teachers were in on.

"Karen? I need to ask you something."

"Ask away," she answered, sounding tired, "but I can't guarantee that I'll answer."

"Where did you and your friends go yesterday? And how were you able to bail on Chemistry class? And, well, what are you up to?" I bailed my questions out rapid-fire. After all, she _did_ tell me to ask away.

She cocked her head and studied me. Then she held up her hand and started ticking her answers off on her fingers. "That's classified, Mrs. Hertz knew where we were going and why, and what makes you think we're up to something?"

I stared at her and spread my hands apart. "All that, actually."

"How do you know we went somewhere during Chemistry class?"

"I followed you."

Maybe that was the wrong thing to say. She looked on the verge of doing something to me. Then she sighed. "Could we go somewhere else to talk about this?"

I followed her out of the cafeteria and all the way to the dorms. In fact – wait – were we going to _her_ dorm room?

She opened the door and pushed me through, then came in herself and closed the door. I stared around. It was easy to tell the two halves of the room apart: one had pictures of dragons all over the walls. When I looked back at Karen, I found she'd probably been looking at me for some time.

"First off," she asked, "can you keep a secret?" Before I could answer, she went on, "And I don't mean something from the teachers, _they_ already know this secret. I mean keeping something from all the students except me and my friends."

I thought about that. Keeping a secret? Uh… "Sure. There are a couple things about my parents I haven't told anyone. You can trust me with this."

She nodded. "Good. Now, most of this isn't technically my secret to tell, but it's too intermeshed with the part that _is_ mine for me to tell you part without you getting all confused on me. What I _can_ tell you is that not too long ago, some freak happenstance had turned me into a dragon, an equally freaky incident helped me turn back, and now some of my friends are going to end up becoming dragons themselves for a while, and possibly me, too, again."

I stared at her. _Dragons_? "Um…" I laughed, "this is probably very serious to you, but I just don't believe it."

She shook her head. "I figured you'd say that. That's why I brought you here." She walked over to her nightstand - oh, her side was the one with the dragons. Figures - and pulled open a drawer. "These were left over from my shift back from dragon to human." She pulled out a pair of white gloves and tossed them to me. "Here – feel those. You'll find that they're not made of any recognizable material."

I only managed to catch one, but I followed that command and studied it carefully. It was made up of interlocking scales, almost like a lizard's or a snake's. But it was all one piece, so it couldn't have been sewn from pieces of skin. Plus, the scales were just too large to have come from either a lizard or a snake.

I looked up and saw her watching my face. I picked up the other one and asked, "Okay, I'll bite. What are these made of?"

"Dragon-skin, of course. Like I said, they're all that's left of my old draconic form. They were my old claws."

_Oh_. I handed them carefully back to her. "So…are you going to tell me how that happened? I mean, how it's happening?"

"I would, but that part's not my secret to tell. We'd need to talk to Jeremy about it – he's the one who first stumbled upon it."

"Okay."

"Now come on," she put the gloves away and went to open the door, "let's get to class."

* * *

**JEREMY**

"You _told_ him?!" I yelled.

"Only about my dragon transformation," Karen defended, "and I didn't say anything about your secret in the process. Let's face it, he followed us, he had a curiosity affliction, he wanted to know what was going on. We don't even have to virtualize him; we could just leave him at Sissi's level of knowing about it."

I had to admit, Karen had a valid point. Now I'd better include poor Turner in the conversation, he was starting to look like a scared puppy. "Okay, look, everything we're going to tell you is true. There's an old abandoned factory that we've gone to many times – that's where we were going when you were following us – and at that factory we found a supercomputer. Inside that computer is a virtual world called Lyoko, and there's a special program that lets people go there. Following me so far?"

"Um…yeah. I guess."

"Good. Because from there, it gets crazier. When I first found it, there was a super-powerful virus living there named Xana, and a girl named Aelita." I couldn't resist smiling at her when I said that.

Turner's eyes got even bigger. "Was that Aelita – "

"Yep! Though we didn't realize what was going on at first. Anyway, Xana was trying to attack Earth ever since we turned on the supercomputer, and trying to keep us from bringing Aelita to Earth by attacking us on Lyoko. Almost all her memories were gone. We managed to get a lot of her memories back, but only after Xana managed to get free from Lyoko."

"Wait, so he's free?"

"Not exactly. We realized we needed to recruit more members to our team. Hence William, though that didn't quite, um, work out well. Xana succeeded in taking control of him, and we ended up spending a lot of time trying to free him."

William chimed in right then. "I don't remember any of this, but Karen and everyone else assured me that it was true what I did."

I continued. "It was through William that Xana gave Karen a virus that started turning her into a dragon. Though she did succeed in freeing William and beating Xana in two shots, and somehow managed to turn back into a human in the process." I frowned; this would still pose a problem in doing the same thing to Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita, as well as Karen again.

"So, wait, shouldn't this whole thing be over?"

"That's what we thought at first. What actually happened was that Xana had managed to get into Karen's head, and has just been sitting there gaining strength and waiting for the right time to strike. That time was yesterday: we went back to the factory to run a scan on Karen, we decided to send three other people to Lyoko with Karen, and Xana struck out and gave all three of them that same virus. We already know that Xana's planning to turn Karen into a dragon again and conquer the world, starting by killing all of us."

Karen hung her head.

"Couldn't we talk Xana into accepting living peacefully with humans?" A typical peace-lover's idea.

Odd chimed up. "If Xana was human, or a guy, maybe. But since going into Karen's head, she's become a girl, and we don't know if she'll listen to reason."

Karen, Yumi, and Aelita all glared at him. I ignored them and answered, "We don't know. Nobody's tried."

"Couldn't I try to get Xana to listen to _me_ after she turns Karen into a dragon?"

"Well, uh, that's Karen's decision. After all, Xana's in _her_ head."

Karen studied him for a long moment. Then she said, "Turner, if you manage to talk Xana into submission, I'm getting my parents to adopt you," and walked off.

Turner just stared after her. I took pity on him and told him, "If that's her answer, then it means she's going to let you try. But you'd better get a script together."

He nodded nervously and ran off. I looked at the others.

"Now here's where we hope the new guy can pull through for us."

* * *

**A/N: The next chapter's probably going to be taking place at least a week after this one. After all, nothing's happening:**

**1) Jeremy's trying to fix the super-scan,**

**2) Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich are slowly turning into dragons, and **

**3) Turner's trying to get his script together.**

**I don't know exactly how far along any of this will be when I pop in again. Yet.**


	8. Chapter 8

The Change, part 1

* * *

**ULRICH**

I sat up yawning, and rubbed my eyes. That was what actually woke me up: my hands didn't feel right. When I looked at my hands, I saw why.

_Wow! So Karen wasn't making that up!_

My hands were claws – scaly, brown dragon's claws like what Karen had when Xana had infected her way back when.

All of a sudden, I got curious: what had happened to Odd? I slipped out of bed and carefully studied Odd while he slept. I didn't have to look far. The dork's forehead had gone yellow with larger scales than were on my hands and wrists, and there was even a purple scale right in the middle of its top row.

_Is Odd going to get an unpleasant surprise when he wakes up!_

I went to the door, planning to get my shower…and the doorknob slid in my hand. I gripped a little harder and tried again. That worked.

Letting the water fall over my head, I thought about what Turner had suggested:

"_**Can't I try talking to Xana and getting her to live peacefully with humans?"**_

That idea was getting to sound better all the time.

I'd just turned the water off and pulled down my towel – carefully, so that I wouldn't tear it like I had my nightshirt – when I heard Odd scream.

I figured I knew why he'd screamed, but I opted on pretending to miss the point. Stepping out, I asked, "Did Kiwi mess up your bed this time instead of mine?"

"What are you talking about?" he shrieked. "I'm losing my hair!"

I laughed. "Better talk to Karen about that, Odd, she'd know more about this shift than either of us. She'll know what's happening to you." I flexed one of my claws in the air. "Besides, what do you think of this?"

Odd calmed down enough to make a rational comment about it. "I think that's very appropriate for you. I mean, getting your _claws_ first and all."

"Come on," I started out, "let's get dressed and see what's for breakfast."

While I was in our room, I studied my usual clothes. It didn't look like I'd be able to manage any shirts without accidentally tearing them, so I picked a jacket and pulled that on without a shirt.

"Is Yumi going to enjoy that new look or what?"Odd teased as he got dressed.

"Be quiet, Odd," I snapped. _How did Karen manage to wear clothes for as long as she did without ripping something?_

* * *

**KAREN**

I ran out with Aelita into the cafeteria. Everybody was together at the table. _So they're not so far gone that they can't be seen in public yet! Whew!_

"Hey, guys! What's new?" I asked.

Odd answered first. "What's new? What's _new?_ Look at my face!"

I studied his face carefully. He had a large yellow scale right between his eyes, just starting to alter the shape of his face by spreading his eyes a tad further apart and pushing his nose slightly out of its usual shape. From there, similarly sized yellow scales spread out in an upside-down triangle, just over his eyebrows and up into his hairline, pushing down his hair. There was even a large purple scale right in the middle of the triangle's widest point, just like the splotch in his hair!

"There's nothing wrong with your hair, Odd," I reassured him, "the scales are only covering it, not replacing it."

He wiped his forehead, almost ignoring the scales. "Whew. Thank goodness!"

Ulrich held up his hands. "Check out these bad boys!"

I looked. Small brown scales covered his hands, even smaller scales covered his wrists, and his nails had altered into quite wicked claws. No wonder he was pleased.

"I just wish I could actually get a shirt on without ripping it. How did you manage?"

Oh, so he wasn't overly happy with them. "I knew that if I didn't teach myself, I'd be discovered."

Yumi interrupted us. "Forget about that. Aelita, what changed on you?"

Aelita waved her hands down towards her feet. "I couldn't get my shoes on this morning."

Her toes had gotten longer with sharper nails, and all her feet were covered with small pink scales, with her ankles covered with even smaller scales.

"Wow!" Sissi exclaimed as Aelita tilted her foot, "That's some pedicure, Aelita!"

It was a good shot. It made me laugh a little. For a situation like this, I prefer being able to laugh once in a while, or I start going into something resembling a depression.

"So," Jeremy asked, "how long will it be before none of the ninth-grade warriors can appear in public?"

I thought about that. "Hmm…judging by where everybody's starting…I'd say that if the changes take place in the same time sequence as mine did, Ulrich and Aelita will be able to stay in public longer than Odd will, and Odd probably will have to disappear tomorrow."

"Oh, man!" Odd moaned.

"As I was saying," I continued, ignoring Odd, "I don't know how long it'll take before either Ulrich or Aelita will have to disappear, though I'll have to guess it'll be about the time they sprout wings. That will probably take…" I thought to myself, trying to remember the math. _Hands, forearms, upper arms, feet, shins, thighs, wings. One, two, three, four, five… _"six days from today, for both."

"Yours took only that long?" Ulrich asked. "It seemed like less."

"We won't ask Aelita to show us what hers are for the next two days," Yumi said, "since it'll be about the same pace as Ulrich's changes."

"Hey," Odd piped up, "when will _I_ get wings?"

"I don't know. I didn't start where you did. If I had to guess on a slightly unrelated area, though, you'll probably get your tail before they get theirs."

"Sweet!"

William spoke up. "I'll go tell Jim to spread the word through the teachers about what's happened to you three. Um…" he looked back at me, "has anything happened to you yet, Karen?"

"No. Xana's still too weak. Someone else will probably get wings before I start to change. Or…maybe not. I don't know, Xana's not talking to me much anymore."

* * *

**WILLIAM**

I went over to Jim. "We have a bit of a situation concerning Xana, sir. Thanks to her, Ulrich's got dragon claws, Aelita's got talon feet, and Odd's got scales on his face. Odd will have to be excused from class tomorrow and come to the cafeteria after everyone else, because the virus will change him in an area that can't be hid quickest."

"Well, if it's really that serious, I'll go tell the others," Jim declared. "Is Karen affected by this yet?"

"Not yet, sir." That worried me a little, but I believed Karen would trust us enough to tell us if anything came up.

She had to trust us; that was the only way we could get through this.

* * *

**KAREN**

Our day was pretty much the same. Then we all went to bed.

_Xana was hysterical. Purely and totally hysterical._

What's so funny?

_**Odd! "Oh dear, I'm going bald!" Oh, oh my, that was worth every circuit of Lyoko!**_

Yeah, yeah._ Then I ignored her and went to sleep._

_

* * *

_**A/N: Okay, this chapter just popped into my head! It _is_ funny, right?**


	9. Chapter 9

The Change, part 2

* * *

**ULRICH**

I woke up to a ridiculously loud squawk that had to be Odd. Rubbing one eye, I protested, "Hey, can't a guy get any sleep around here?" Then I saw Odd and laughed. His whole head had changed to look more like what Karen's head looked like back when she was a dragon, and he looked completely panicked.

Odd tried to tell me off, but no English words would come out of his mouth.

I shook my head and studied my arms. By now, they were scaled all the way to just past my elbows, and my forearms seemed like they'd gotten more muscle on them. That told me what happened to Aelita, at least. "Come on, Odd. Let's get dressed and talk to Karen."

* * *

"You haven't lost your ability to talk, Odd."

Jeremy, Karen, Aelita, William, Yumi and I had decided to wait until everyone else was done, so that we could eat with Odd. Sissi hadn't bothered.

"What do you mean, Karen?" Yumi asked.

"Well, just look at him: only his head has changed. His neck hasn't altered at all, and therefore, neither have his vocal chords. The only reason he's having trouble right now is because he's not used to that mouth. It has its good points, though."

Odd got this look of total focus on his dragon face. Then he asked slowly, "Like…what?"

Karen grinned and tossed a croissant in the air. "Catch!"

Odd watched it fly, and then he – whoa! His tongue just snapped out and grabbed it from the air! The whole thing just disappeared into his mouth and he got maybe three chews on it before realizing what it was he'd just did.

"That's some tongue, Odd," William commented, his eyes almost as big as Odd's eyes had become overnight.

He grinned around his mouthful. With those teeth, that grin was a tiny bit unnerving now. But I wasn't going to say anything and ruin his fun.

I mean, what could be worse for anybody than to be told that they can't smile?

* * *

**ODD**

Okay, I might have overreacted a little bit back when I first found out what had happened to my head. By now, though, I thought it was way cool! I mean, check out this tongue! I saw that croissant flying and I just _nabbed_ it right out of the air!

About the only thing I didn't like about my head now was how hard I had to focus, just to talk. "Karen," I asked, "has…any-thing…hap-pened…to you…"

"Yet?" Karen finished, and I nodded. "Well…" She stayed quiet for a minute, looking like she was trying to recall. "Not yet. Though if nothing happens by the time, say, Ulrich's forced out of shoes, I'll be surprised."

Ulrich looked a little confused at being brought up. I cocked my head. "When-will-that-be?" _Hey – that one came faster!_

"Probably about…" Karen pulled up Ulrich's sleeve and studied where the scales ended. Ulrich was putting up with that pretty well. "Day after tomorrow, thereabouts." She looked at Aelita and went on, "That will be when your hands will become claws. And Odd?"

I jumped. "Yeah?"

"Don't get used to being able to talk. By tomorrow, you won't even be able to do today's method."

_Oh, _man!

* * *

**WILLIAM**

I laughed. I couldn't help it; Odd's scaly face looked so disappointed. Well, I'd be disappointed too if I knew I wouldn't be able to talk for more than one more day.

"Um, Aelita?" I asked. "Sorry for seeming so dense, but what's changed on you?"

"Same thing as on Ulrich, only on my legs."

"Oh." Karen had been the first to call me dense, actually. She said that was why I'd been caught by Xana in the first place: I hadn't listened to warnings about one of the monsters, and so Xana managed to take control of me. I wasn't offended; she was right. And I had already guessed what had changed on Aelita – the question was just an attempt to make Karen laugh.

Well, it worked. Sort of, anyway; she smiled.

* * *

**KAREN**

Today went about the same as usual, with the exception of Odd stopping at the classes after everyone else had left and going to the lunch room in the same pattern.

We met up together just before parting to go home or back to dorms or whatever: all the Lyoko warriors, plus Sissi and Turner. Sissi spent the whole meeting staring at Odd, who seemed to have gotten used to his predicament enough to enjoy the attention.

"Okay," I declared, "Jeremy, Turner? Status reports on your designated projects."

Jeremy answered first. "I still haven't figured out what program to run to get that bug out of the scanning system yet. I'll probably get it in another week, though."

"I've, um, almost got my speech together, but I'd like a bit longer," Turner stammered. I think he was nervous of Odd, he kept stealing glances in his general direction.

"Don't worry, Turner," I reassured him, "you won't have to have that speech completely ready until I'm a full dragon. Xana can't communicate with the real world until then."

Personally, I just wished I felt as calm as I was pretending to be.


	10. Chapter 10

The Change, part 3

* * *

**ULRICH**

I woke up to a bang, which was followed by a loud noise that set Kiwi barking like crazy. Sitting up, I looked over at Odd. The dork had grown a longer neck overnight, and stretching out had banged his head into the wall. He'd roared at hitting his head, and that was the noise. Now he was rubbing his head, glaring at the wall.

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed, Odd?" I asked.

He growled at me, sounding almost like Kiwi. Then he looked first shocked, then miserable.

"What is it?"

He tried to answer me. But no English words were coming out.

_Oh. That's the problem. He can't talk anymore._ "Well. Now we'll get some peace and quiet."

He whined at me, trying to sound like Kiwi.

"Sorry, Odd. You won't get any sympathy from me." I got up and checked my arms. Scales ran all the way up and covered my shoulders, and my shoulders didn't quite feel like themselves. They felt fine, but they didn't quite feel normal. "Hey, Odd – yes or no: did my shoulders change any?"

Odd stood up, came over to my bed, and stretched his neck out so that his head was behind my back. Then he pulled his head back around in front of me, and nodded.

"Okay, let's go talk to Karen and find out what happened to them."

* * *

**KAREN**

"Well, two things have changed about your shoulders."

We were talking after all the normal people had finished breakfast. Rosa was the only person here who hadn't virtualized. Odd was stuffing his much larger mouth, and Ulrich was making sure not to look at him, though Yumi and Jeremy looked impressed, and William was throwing food at him in random directions and making Odd swerve his neck to catch them.

"First of all, they're in a better position to allow you to walk on all fours whenever you get to that point. Aelita had that problem, too. I had to help her walk upright at first, and even now…"

Aelita was practicing walking around the table, and she was tilted forward a little. Standing upright made her wobble badly, now. Since she didn't have her tail yet, she would end up dealing with that problem for a few more days.

"Second, your shoulders are altering in such a way so as to allow for the presence of wings on your back. They'll need shoulders, too, in a manner of speaking."

"Wings?" He looked a little…I don't know how to read that look.

Odd grinned at him, but he didn't try to say anything. Probably wise, considering how his vocal chords have...disintegrated beyond capabilities of human speech.

"Now, there's something that all three of you will need to make sure about pretty soon, while you still have the time to think about it. Odd, pay attention. Aelita, can you stop walking for a minute?"

Both stopped their respective activities and looked at me.

"Odd, you'll have to worry about this sooner, but all three of you need to find some, ah, legwear that you won't mind getting ripped in the back, and focus on only wearing that for a while."

Ulrich and Aelita nodded while saying some random affirmative phrases, and Odd's mouth dropped open. It looked like he was pretending to say "Oh."

"And yes, Ulrich, sometime you'll have to ditch the shirt altogether – you too, Odd – to allow for your wings. Aelita…I suggest picking a swimsuit, like I did. Those have open enough backs to permit wing freedom."

"Won't I get cold?"

"It's pretty warm right now. And, once you're scaled most of the way, you won't really notice breezes except on your wings. No big deal."

William asked me, kind of cautiously, "Um…has anything changed on you yet?"

I sighed. Not from any boredom with the question, but… "Yes. Xana's getting her strength back enough to start changing me, too."

I wasn't ready to tell them what had changed. The truth was that Xana had told me last night what she was doing to me that night, and that she was going to be going very random with my transformation. She wasn't strong enough to change me majorly yet, but she was strong enough to start giving me scales all over my shins and knees. If I had to guess, my forearms would be next, followed by my waist. Beyond that, I didn't know.

I hoped Turner was mostly ready with his speech. He'd need it pretty soon.

* * *

**ODD**

I spent the whole day working on some kind of system so that everybody could understand me. I finally managed to get some sounds out that resembled my friends' names.

_An extended hiss means Sissi, a strangled growl is Ulrich, a coo is Yumi, and a cough followed by a short growl is Karen. That's all I can come up with. Aelita, William, and Jeremy are out of my limits._

_But what I don't get is why I can't talk with my mind. Karen could! Why can't I? And the worst part of it is, I can't figure out how to _ask_ her! My vocabulary is limited, as Jeremy would say, and I don't have enough of a code to fill in the blanks. I hope someone else comes up with that question first._


	11. Chapter 11

The Change, part 4

* * *

**ULRICH**

I stretched carefully, making sure not to tear the mattress with my claws. "Having two sets of claws is annoying," I said to the room, "especially since I only got the second set three days ago." I walked over to Odd's bed – wait, was I walking on all fours? _Well, Aelita's been having this problem for about three days now, so of course I have it, too._ I got up carefully onto two feet – Aelita's right, it is hard to balance like this – and pushed Odd, curled up with his head under his blankets, with a claw. "Come on, Odd, it's time to get up."

Odd groaned, something hit my legs, and I fell down again. "Hey!" I sat up, grabbed hold of the thing that had thwacked me and gave it a hard pull. "Get out of bed!"

Odd fell out of bed, taking all the blankets with him. "Ow!" he protested while pulling the blankets off his head. Then he stared at what was between my hands.

I was staring, too. What I'd pulled was a long yellow tail with a Laser Arrow tip. All I could think to say was, "I hope you're wearing the pants you wanted to rip."

He nodded, but I'm not exactly sure he heard me. I let go and watched him try out twitching his brand new tail for a minute.

"I'm going to get a shower, while nobody else is up. You should, too."

* * *

**KAREN**

We all met up in the cafeteria. Odd looked remarkably smug about being the first person to possess a tail, and the grin on his face only made me feel like everybody was glad he couldn't talk. Ulrich was having trouble walking upright, and Aelita wouldn't stop carefully touching her shoulders.

"Can I guess as to all of your transformations?" I asked the room.

Odd nodded smugly, a move that went down his entire neck, and Ulrich just said, "Yes." He sounded sullen; figures.

Aelita didn't say anything. I could understand that; she knew I already knew what hers was.

William asked, "So what's going to happen next on them? I mean, now we have two kids with dragon legs and one snake with a boy's arms and legs." Odd let out a little squeak of protest at that, but William ignored it.

So did I. "Well…Ulrich and Aelita are the only ones I can say for sure: they're both going to get wings tomorrow. Odd I'm less sure about. Whatever he gets next, it'll be in pairs. You know, like Ulrich's hands?"

Suddenly, William's eyes got big. "Karen?"

"Yeah?"

"You've got scales on your face."

I was wondering when somebody was going to notice that. After getting scaled forearms and a scaled waist, I hadn't been sure what would change. I had scales on my forehead now, just like Odd did at the beginning of his transformation. "I know, William. Xana's just getting strong enough to make some more extreme changes on me now."

Suddenly, I winced. There was an itching kind of pain on my back. _Xana, are you changing me in broad daylight now?_

"Are you okay, Karen?" Jeremy asked.

_No, I'm not._ "Um…my back itches. It's not a big deal."

Yumi narrowed her eyes at me. "When Xana's in your head, it _is_ a big deal."

I shook my head in exasperation. "You want me to take my shirt off and show you my back in this company?"

Odd grinned, Jeremy and William both blushed, and Ulrich looked away.

I sighed. "Well…I _will_ show you guys my back, if only to find out for sure what's wrong." I turned around so that my back was to them, and then pulled my shirt up as far as I could.

There was pure silence from behind me.

"Well? What is it with my back?"

William answered. "Your back has scales on it." I felt a slight warmth touch against my back. I laid a bet with myself that William had set his hand on my back to tell himself that his eyes weren't fooling him.

"Figures. Xana's pushing her hand as much as she can right now."

* * *

Xana increased my transformation in so far as to scale up my arms and legs completely through the course of the day. She must have guessed that doing anything other than scales would hurt me, and I'd try to block her off, so she was going to only increase my scales by day.

I just hoped everybody else's shifts would accelerate in so far as to make sure they were done before me.

* * *

**A/N: I had decided to jump over Aelita getting scaled hands and forearms, Ulrich getting scaled feet and shins, and Odd getting a scaled chest and torso, because none of that had anything interesting. "Tomorrow" will be _way_ more interesting. =D**


	12. Chapter 12

The Change, part 5

* * *

**KAREN**

I sat up, looking at my hands and feet. I no longer slept properly, since Xana had opted to do my extreme transformations by night. _Well,_ I thought, _at least both my hands and my feet will be fully scaled before the day is out. Right now, they look really strange without their scales._

"Aelita, tell me you remembered to wear your swimsuit to bed."

"I did. Um…could you help me with my wings?"

I looked up. Aelita was fighting to get large, pink-scaled bat-wings to close using her hands.

I couldn't help it; I laughed. "Aelita, those wings are a part of you: you can't just push them shut with your hands like some sort of book." I held out my arms and demonstrated what I meant. "Your wings are designed just like your arms, with the majority of them being fingers. If you want them to close like I was managing to do, then you need to move them like this," I pulled my elbows back against my sides, putting the rest of my arms perpendicular to my sides, "this," I bent my elbows all the way up, so that my hands were near my head, "and this," and I bent my fingers down more or less over my hands.

"Um…okay." Aelita closed her eyes and focused. Then, slowly, her wings stretched up and out, nearly touching the walls. From there, they bent onto her back, upper 'arm,' 'forearm,' and 'fingers.'

"Good job! Now, you'll have to keep semi-thinking about them staying that way for at least a little while, since the first position they were in from growing out of your back was just flopping about loose. Believe it or not, wings are items of habit."

"Well, then let's go find Ulrich and help him out." She was assuming that Ulrich would be having trouble.

* * *

At the breakfast table, I saw that Odd was leaning over and looking down at his feet. So that was what had changed on him; I wondered. Aelita was right, by the way: Ulrich had no shirt, and was fighting with his own brown-scaled bat-wings.

"Nice wings, Aelita," Yumi greeted us.

"How did you get out of your room, Ulrich?" I asked while Aelita thanked Yumi.

"Odd had to help me. Could you show me how to close these things?"

As I was talking him through the wing-folding process, Jim walked in.

I immediately smelled a rat. Generally, Jim avoided the dragon-kids during mealtimes. Especially Odd.

"Hi, Jim. What's up?"

Jim didn't answer right away. He was busy staring at Ulrich's wings. Wait…weren't _Aelita's_ wings the more impressive ones, since they were pink?

"Jim?" I asked slowly, "Is there something inconvenient about Ulrich getting his wings right now?"

"Well, yes. Stern? Ah…your father's here to see you."

* * *

**ULRICH**

"WHAT?!" I yelled, my wings flopping open again. Before anyone else could say anything, I dashed to the door, flapping my wings frantically.

I actually don't remember opening the door. I think Sissi opened it, and I knocked her over. Either way, I vaulted into the air and…didn't come down.

I heard Karen yelling behind me. "Ulrich, you're doing great! Now, don't try turning, just glide slowly towards the ground and hit running!"

Following her instructions resulted in my landing hard and falling flat. Yumi and Sissi both ran over, along with Karen, asking if I was okay.

"Uh…did I just…."

"Fly?" Karen finished. "Yes. Nerves tend to set off First Flight faster than anything else." She looked past me and stiffened. "Um…has anyone told you that you look like your dad?"

Something about the way she asked that… "What makes you think so?"

"Because there's this man staring at you, and he looks like you probably would in a decade or so if you were kept isolated."

_Oh no._

I looked up. Bingo: my dad was standing there, staring at my new look.

"Ulrich? Would you care explaining this?"

"Ah…not really."

Karen stood up, getting this defiant look I'd never seen before. "Mister Stern, I presume? This change is taking place on your son because of a virus he'd contracted from an old factory. He had been considering suicide because of your treatment of him, and probably would have done it if Yumi," she waved at the black-haired girl, "hadn't sent me to stop him."

_What?_

"As it is, now Jeremy will be assisting the school nurse in figuring out how to cure both of us of this virus. I sincerely doubt that a solution can be found before Ulrich changes completely into an animal, so if you'll excuse us?" And she heaved me to my feet and led me off, with Sissi and Yumi following us.

I looked back. Dad wasn't following us; he was just standing there with this shocked look on his face.

"Karen, where did you learn to lie like that?" Yumi asked.

"No clue. I was thinking on my feet, trying to figure out how to tell him part of the truth without implicating Ulrich's friends as the cause."

"Ulrich?"

I winced, closed my wings, and shrugged off my female escort. Turning around, I asked, "What is it?"

"I…want to apologize for my high-handed treatment. Of you and your friends, I mean." He looked very nervous. Understandable, seeing as I had claws now.

I felt a whack on one wing. Karen was trying to cue me on an answer. What should I…oh. Dad's saying he's sorry, so of course I…

I held out my hand. "I'll forget it if you stop calling my friends losers."

Dad hesitated for just a moment. Then he straightened his shoulders and shook my hand. He looked surprised at my grip.

"Ulrich, do you think you're going to keep this strength when you're cured?"

I grinned, glad I didn't have fangs yet. "Maybe; who knows?"

* * *

**AELITA**

I went to the pool like Karen had asked me to before running after Ulrich. Karen was already there with Ulrich.

"Okay, now I'm going to teach you two how to fly, and to land properly." That last one was said with a smirk at Ulrich. "The proper beats that you should use with those wings are a butterfly-stroke kind of move: down, up, and forward, keeping the webbing full on the backward stroke and then closing it on the forward stroke. Go on – try it."

I concentrated on moving my wings in the manner she wanted me to. Upon moving my wings down with the webbing open, I felt my feet lift off the floor! "Oh!"

Karen grinned at me. "Lifting, isn't it? That's the whole point. How are you doing, Ulrich?"

Ulrich was trying a few wingbeats by himself. "This actually feels like what I was doing earlier."

"Yeah, you were doing it right, amazingly. The next thing you're going to learn is gliding from a height and landing properly, which is why we're here." She pointed at the high diving board. "One of you is going to climb up there and jump out, keeping your wings stiff and your webbing full. When you've glided across the pool, start moving your wings as if you're trying to clap them in front of you. That move – back-winging – will start moving your upper body backwards so that you can get your feet under you, and it slows you down so that you can…land safely." She smirked at Ulrich again when she said that.

Ulrich ignored that, and instead tried back-winging while on the ground. "Whoa!" He fell backward and hit the floor.

Karen laughed and held out a hand. "I could have told you not to try that unless you're in the air. But that's the way you do it. Who wants to go first?"

I held up my hand. "I'll do it."

Karen didn't actually say anything to acknowledge my volunteering; she just waved at the diving board.

I'll admit to being nervous about climbing up there. I mean, I wasn't going to be jumping into the water below the diving board – I was going to glide through the air away from the diving board!

Poised at the end, I took a deep breath, spread my wings, and almost tipped off the edge.

"Whoa!"

Startled, I jerked back up.

"You need to give yourself more thrust than that! You were about to belly-flop in the pool!"

_Oh. Thanks for telling me, Karen. I can do that_. I jumped off the edge, keeping my wings spread and stiff.

* * *

**KAREN**

Everybody learned something that day. Ulrich learned how to fly, and Aelita learned how to glide.

What did _I_ learn? I learned that I was never going to become a teacher; I went too fast in my own curriculum, and I wasn't patient enough with my friends. I also learned that it's awfully hard to stand still when there are scales growing on one's feet.

_Well, at least they're getting pretty good at landing with the instructions I gave them. Tomorrow, I'll teach them the art of turning. It's easier with a tail, but they can do it. I should know: when I was turning into a dragon, I got my wings before my tail, but I could still turn in mid-air. I just hope Xana leaves my hips and shoulders alone long enough for me to teach them that._

**A/N: Yeah, two out of three are learning how to fly. I'm going to skip over the next "scale-up" for the three warriors -which is when Ulrich and Aelita get scales on their faces, Odd gets scales on his shins, Karen, yes, loses full human mobility in her hips and shoulders, and the two flyers learn how to turn - and go straight to the next interesting thing.**

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

The Change, part 6

* * *

**KAREN**

"Graawgh!"

I opened my eyes blearily. What was that?

Then I looked over at Aelita. And nearly laughed.

Her head had completely shifted into that of a dragon, just like Odd's is now, only it was in pink.

"I figured that'd alarm you. It probably spooked Odd, too. Don't worry about it. You'll probably be – you know what? I won't tell you right now. I'll wait on giving this info until I can tell Ulrich, too."

As we got up, straightened up, and in my case dressed, I took stock. Nothing had changed last night! No scales, no tail, no wings, nothing!

Actually, that wasn't a total surprise; Xana had told me last night that she'd rather get my wings, tail, or neck and head changed all at once, and that if she attempted right now she'd probably only end up with one wing, small wings, half a tail, or something worse.

* * *

It was all I could do to keep from laughing as I went into the cafeteria. Odd was laughing at Ulrich, who was trying to talk. I noticed Odd was leaning very heavily on the table, though. Lost bipedal socket position, perhaps?

"It's okay, Ulrich," I interrupted his screeches, "you're fine."

Jeremy spoke up. "Hey, that's something I've been meaning to ask you: when you turned into a dragon, you could talk using telepathy. Why can't they?"

Odd let out some sort of screech. Somehow, I figured Odd was wondering that, but couldn't ask himself.

"I think it has something to do with the fact that my transformation was practically done by the time my head changed. Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita haven't finished yet, so their telepathy hasn't activated. Aelita, Ulrich? You'll both be able to talk by the time you've gotten your tails. Odd, you'll be able to talk about the time you get your wings."

Odd looked much happier by that news.

William hadn't spoken in all this time; he was just pushing the food around on his tray. What was his damage?

Odd noticed this and let out a little trill with his tongue, pointing at William's tray. Obviously, Odd only cared that food was going to waste.

Shoving his tray over to Odd, William asked, "Has anything more happened to you, Karen?"

"No. Xana has opted to wait until tomorrow to change anything."

"Why?"

"Believe it or not, Xana cares about appearances. Since she's working on growing scales by day, anything she does will look weird enough as it is, but she doesn't want me stuck with small wings, or with only one wing, or something equally hideous. And…"

"And?" Yumi urged me on.

"And Xana's…starting to act a lot more hesitant about doing anything. I mean, doing anything to the world. It's like…like being in my head, she's getting a sense of my views on right and wrong, and…I think she's getting a conscience."

Odd squeaked something, then shut his mouth again and looked sad. Clearly, he wanted to make a joke and couldn't.

Yumi actually saved him. "So Xana's having a guilt trip about what she's doing to you guys?"

I nodded as Odd gave Yumi the most pathetic grateful look. "I get the feeling that when Xana finally completes the dragon transformation, she'll be very easy to convince."

* * *

**WILLIAM**

Well. That was swell news. And Karen was more likely to know about what Xana was thinking than we were, seeing as it was her head that she was in.

I still couldn't shake my own guilt trip, though. If Karen hadn't struck out at Xana to free me, she would never have this problem.

I was also having trouble actually coming out and apologizing to her, too. I didn't know if Karen would ever want to go out with me again, now that she knew that defeating Xana on Lyoko and freeing me had given her a brand-new nightmare to live out.

Would she give me a second chance? Wait…this _was_ my second chance.

A _third_ chance? Somehow, I doubted it. A guy can only screw up so many times.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry that this chapter's so short. But I ended up on a time crunch. I'll do better on the next chapter, which will be "tomorrow."**


	14. Chapter 14

The Change, part 7

* * *

**ODD**

I blinked sleepily and listened. No barking was coming from anywhere, same as it had been since my head changed.

I missed that little diggety dog, but Kiwi had seen my dragon head and freaked, so now he was staying at Yumi's house. He'd done fine there last time, so he should be fine for a few weeks. Still…

I started stretching out on the bed, then remembered my neck and arched my back to stretch. When I opened my eyes again at the peak of my stretch, I found myself staring at my feet. _Wow, I didn't know I could arch that far!_

Then I heard a bang, followed by a snarling "OW!" My head swiveled around to look.

Ulrich had stood up and stretched, and his neck had straightened out like one of those plastic lightsabers and banged his head on the ceiling! He was on all fours now, rubbing his head and glaring up at the ceiling with one eye.

I grinned at him. _There. Now we're even!_ I glanced at my own bed, and saw that the blankets were torn. Looking at my hands, I saw the culprits: brand-new claws!

_

* * *

_

**KAREN**

I had slept a little late talking to Xana, and I never heard Aelita get up. Now, I came into the cafeteria and saw Odd inspecting his new claws with interest, Yumi staring at Ulrich's neck, Jeremy staring at Aelita's neck, and William looking at me.

"Well, Karen? Has anything happened today?" he asked.

For answer, I twitched my tail around my legs.

"This is getting interesting, isn't it? Now Odd only needs his shoulders to move into the right position for wings, not to mention getting the wings, and he'll be done. Ulrich and Aelita will both be done when they get their tails. And I know what Xana's going to do next on me."

That got everyone's attention. "What?" Jeremy asked.

"She's going to give me wings in another couple days."

Odd stared at me. I guess he was remembering how I'd looked with wings.

After that, we started talking about current progress. Well, Yumi was talking with Jeremy and pretending she understood what he meant. Jeremy was explaining how he'd managed to fix the super scan, finally. William and I just ate in silence, and the three dragon-headed warriors were just listening.

I had gotten more or less fine with the situation. I mean, Xana was only changing me now because she wanted completion, and a way to talk to the others.

After breakfast, William came over to me. "Karen, ah…I wanted to say…I'm sorry I brought this down on you. I mean, it was thanks to my carelessness that Xana took control of me, and gave you that virus, and it was when you saved me that Xana managed to get into your head. And now you're turning into a dragon all over again."

"Will…" I sighed. "I don't blame you. In fact, I don't waste time blaming anyone. It's counterproductive. Besides, there's no point looking back on that. The way I see it, what's happened has happened, and it won't be happening again if we do this right, so we need to focus on the now."

Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little. But I really didn't blame him for what happened.

I just hoped Xana knew how to reverse this.

* * *

**WILLIAM**

I felt a little better. I mean, at least I knew she didn't blame me for turning her into a dragon again. But that still hadn't actually been forgiveness.

Would she ever forgive me?

Suddenly, I felt a slight whack on the side of my head. I looked, and saw Karen with her hand up, giving me a strange look. "Are you running a guilt trip?"

"Uh…"

"Well, don't. I've accepted your apology. We need everyone sticking together, now more than ever."

I nodded. What else could I do?

Karen hesitated for a moment. Then she straightened up and – kissed me on the cheek!

"When this is over, can we go to another movie?" she asked me.

I just stared at her for a minute, trying to grasp what she'd asked me. Then something hit my leg.

"Sure!" I said quickly. Then I glared at Odd.

Odd just grinned at me, waving his tail.

_Boy,_ I thought, _will I be glad when Odd's back to normal!_


	15. Chapter 15

The Change, part 8

* * *

**KAREN**

_I hovered near Xana. _Well? How do you feel about what's going on?

**_Well…I _don't_ really want to destroy anything anymore. And I _certainly_ don't want to _kill_ anyone. But…_**_The dragon bobbed her head down, looking a little scared to make her suggestion._

But?_ I prompted._

**_But I don't want to vanish. I want to be able to stay on Earth, and not disappear into cyberspace. I want something to possess, something to download myself to once I return you four to your original states so that I can still live even after the supercomputer is shut down again._**

Oh, is _that_ all? I'm sure Jeremy could build you a robot to use. I'll ask him when I see him at breakfast.

**_I'd prefer an animal, but thank you._**

* * *

I woke up fast. That's easy to do when you're lying funny and your left wing's fallen asleep.

"_Rrr?_" Aelita growled at me, cocking her head to the side while watching me punch at my wing.

"It's okay, Aelita. My wing fell asleep, that's all." I studied my wings. No scales, but that was okay. I didn't really think Xana would bother trying to scale my wings at night. No, she'd save the shift-and-scale action for when she changed my head and neck. "Come on, Aelita. Let's go find Jeremy."

* * *

**TURNER**

I found Jeremy in the cafeteria. "Hi. Um…Karen told me yesterday that she didn't need me to make a speech, but that she still wanted me around to…help out if possible."

"Really? She probably still wants to talk to her parents to get them to adopt you."

Ulrich lifted his head and growled. I actually don't think the dragons can even understand each other right now.

Though, I figured out what he was trying to say. Aelita and Karen came in right then.

I couldn't stop staring at Karen's wings. Something seemed different about them when comparing them to Ulrich's or Aelita's. "Uh…Karen? What's wrong with your wings?"

She touched one. "They don't have their scales yet. Xana didn't have enough power to grow wings for me _and_ give them scales. She'll be slowly spreading scales over the course of the day."

"Oh."

"Which reminds me," she looked at Jeremy, "Jer? Xana told me last night that she wanted to stay on Earth. She didn't want to disappear into the supercomputer when we turned it off. I told her that I'd ask about if you could build a robot for her. Her parting shot was something along the line of preferring an animal to possess, but she thanked me anyway."

_An animal?_ "I found a badly-hurt cat on the street on the way here and took it in. It's in my dorm right now. I was going to release it back into the wild once it healed, but if Xana wants, she can use it. That is," I backpedaled, "if she doesn't hurt it or anything like that."

Odd stopped fussing with his shoulders and stared at me instead. I don't know why.

"I'll have to wait until tonight to ask her, but thank you. I'll definitely call Mom to ask her sometime either today or tomorrow." Then she thought her answer over. "Better make it today. I don't know how fast Xana will be able to go, and I don't want to risk losing my voice."

_YES!!! I'll have a family again!_

* * *

**AELITA**

Karen's wings itched all day as scales grew on them. It made me glad _my_ wings grew their scales at the same time that they formed.

As night fell, I watched as Karen pulled out her cell phone in our dorm room.

"Hey, Mom. I wanted to ask you how you felt about adopting."

Hey! I could barely hear her mom answering! These ears were really something! "I'm not against it. Why do you ask?"

"There's a transfer orphan at school. His name's Turner Chase."

"Is this that boyfriend I've heard you talking about?"

"No, he's not my boyfriend. I wouldn't suggest you adopt him if he was."

"Did you dream about this?"

Karen hesitated. "Not…exactly. But he really does deserve a new home. He's had several foster families and none of them bothered to keep him. He's…a little environmental-extremist. I think."

"Oh. One of the fanatics. Well, I can certainly handle a fanatic, if nobody else could."

"Thanks, Mom. You're the greatest!"

"Thank _you_, Karen. Have a nice day!"

"You too. 'Bye." She hung up and looked at me. "How much did you hear?"

"Awrl," I struggled.

Karen grinned. "All?" she guessed.

I just nodded.

"Okay. If it makes you feel any better, I think you're going to get your communication tomorrow."

I smiled and lay down.

* * *

**KAREN**

Xana? What _do_ you think of possessing a cat?

**_A cat? You mean something like what Odd looked like on Lyoko?_**

Yeah, something like that. You have access to my memories, you know what a cat is.

**_That would be wonderful!_**

Great! So…when will I be done becoming a dragon?

**_Two days from now. And…just to warn you, you won't remember being a full dragon. I'll be in complete control of your body._**

Oh. Okay, I guess I can live with that. As long as my memory turns back on afterwards.

**_It will. Good night, Karen._**

Good night, Xana. _Then I ignored her presence and went into a deeper sleep without dreams._


	16. Chapter 16

The Change, part 9

* * *

**ULRICH**

I stretched out on the bed – carefully, I didn't want to bang my head again – yawned, and heard something fall off the table behind me. _Huh?_ I swiveled my neck around and looked. A book had gotten knocked off the desk by my new tail. _Oh._ I tried out a couple twitches, and actually managed to pick the book up and put it back without turning around.

Then I heard a bang, a yellow-scaled wingtip extended in front of my nose for a second, and a yell echoed through my head. _**OW!!!**_

_**Odd, keep it down, will you!?**_ I glared at Odd, who was fighting with his wings and trying to get them closed.

_**You heard me?**_ He swiveled his head around to stare at me.

All I could do was stare back. **You **_**heard **_**me?**

After about a minute when neither of us said anything, Odd said, _**Let's go find Karen**_.

* * *

**KAREN**

I flew quickly over to the lunch room with Aelita. She was very happy with her voice being turned on again.

_**I wonder how Ulrich and Odd are taking their new situation.**_

"Well, Odd will probably be asking Ulrich for pointers on flying, and Ulrich might be asking Odd for pointers on moving his new tail." I thought about that. "Or maybe not: Odd likes trying things out on his own, and Ulrich doesn't like asking Odd for anything."

Aelita grinned at me, and we touched down and went in.

Odd was having trouble closing his wings, after I'd only had this talk with them three days ago, and loudly complaining about his lack of being able to move them properly. Ulrich was spinning the tip of his tail in circles, and he was looking at Yumi, clearly in a conversation that I couldn't hear! He'd mastered the telepathy to the point of only one person hearing him?

"Odd, your wings are like your arms, remember? Upper arms against your back, elbows bent all the way, fingers laid against your hands."

Odd jumped, grinned sheepishly, and closed his wings slowly. _**I knew that.**_

Ulrich rolled his eyes, along with Yumi and William. Jeremy had opted to ignore them and stare at Aelita. "Aelita, can you talk now?"

_**Yes, Jeremy. I can talk.**_

_**So,**_ Ulrich asked, _**did you get any word from Xana?**_

"Yeah. She loves the idea of possessing a cat, so we'll tell Turner as soon as we see him. And…"

William cocked his head. "Yeah?"

"I…won't be able to remember being a full dragon tomorrow. Xana will be in full control for that day."

"Oh."

"I'm fine with that, as long as my memory turns back on afterwards. But tonight, I'll be…sort of saying 'goodbye for now.'"

_**Aw **_**man!** Odd whined.

"I know. Awful, isn't it?" Somehow, I couldn't keep the teasing note out of my voice.

* * *

**WILLIAM**

By the end of the day, Odd could fly, Ulrich and Aelita could use their tails almost as well as a hand, and Karen was much quieter.

Aelita and Ulrich had flown Yumi home about half an hour ago, and just now they were coming back.

"How was it, guys?" Karen asked.

_**It was fine,**_ Ulrich answered. _**I think I actually could have managed to carry Yumi all by myself.**_

_**You were,**_ Aelita retorted, _**I was just steadying her**_.

Ulrich ignored that, and he and Odd went to their dorms, with Jeremy following them.

Aelita started back to her own dorm, then looked back. _**Are you coming, Karen?**_

"I'll catch up."

She and I just stood there for a long moment, looking at each other. Karen spoke first.

"You probably should be getting home."

"Yeah."

I wondered what she was going to do. I wondered what _I_ was going to do. Her arms weren't built right for her to give me a hug anymore, and – don't tell Odd I said this – I felt like I needed one right now.

Then Karen set her hands on my shoulders and folded her wings around behind my back! It took me a second to realize that that was the only way she could give a person a hug, and hugged her back.

When we let go, all I could think to say was, "Thanks."

* * *

**A/N: I know, this chapter was short, and the ending was a little cheesy. The next chapter will be better.**


	17. Chapter 17

The Final Test

* * *

**XANA**

I sat up in bed and stretched. My large dragon's jaws opened in a yawn.

_**Good morning.**_

I looked over at Aelita, who was still lying down, though her head was lifted up and looking at me.

_**Good morning, Aelita. Shall we go find Jeremy and the others?**_

_**Yes. I'm looking forward to becoming human again.**_

I left it at that, as I nosed the window open and crawled out.

* * *

**AELITA**

I followed after Karen – Xana, I reminded myself. Karen was somewhere inside that dragon, but she wasn't the one in control. The truth was that this incident would be a test of Xana's change; had she really obtained a human's conscience and Karen's sense of right and wrong? Or was there still something left of the computer virus wanting to take over the world that she used to be?

* * *

**TURNER**

After school, I stood by the dorms, nervously holding the cat I'd found. Soon, four dragons came gliding down to me, and Jeremy, Yumi, and William walked over.

Jeremy looked over at Xana, then asked me, "Are you ready, Turner?"

I nodded. Almost right after that, Jeremy and Yumi jumped onto the backs of Aelita and Ulrich, and they took off!

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked, a little desperately.

William answered me. "I guess you can't hear Xana. She directed us on who's riding with who. I'll be riding her, you ride on Odd." And with that, he mounted, and Xana took off.

"But why are we riding in the first place? Why's everyone – " But they were already out of earshot. So I sighed, took a firmer hold on the cat, and got onto Odd's back.

* * *

It was the most insane ride of my life. Finally, we got to an enormous factory, and they started gliding down.

Jeremy, Yumi and William suddenly reached out and grabbed hold of cables hanging from a steel beam, swinging off their respective dragons' backs!

As they slid down to the ground, I yelped, "I can't do that! I'm holding the cat!"

Xana rolled her eyes, flew back around, and grabbed my shirt, lifting me right off of Odd's back. As we landed, she looked over at Yumi in the elevator.

"She says sorry, but the dragon-kids are just too inexperienced to land with someone on their backs. Well, let's go."

With that, everyone went into the elevator, myself included, and we went down.

* * *

I was very impressed with the computer. And apparently, Xana had thrown around a bunch of instructions I couldn't hear, because Jeremy took the chair with her by his side and everyone else stayed in the elevator and went downstairs.

Jeremy sat down at the chair and put something onto his ear. "Are you guys ready?"

* * *

**XANA**

I gently pushed Jeremy's chair away from the computer with a wing. _**Ask if there are any volunteers for my program; I'm only doing them one at a time.**_

"Um…who wants to go first?"

I didn't hear very clearly what happened, but I had a pretty shrewd guess: Ulrich had decided, just once, to beat Odd to volunteering.

I carefully typed some phrases. _Let's see…I'm rewriting their corporal envelopes so that when they leave the scanners again, they're fully human…_

An alert popped up on the screen, which I angrily dashed away. _Shut up, I'm fixing things here!_

Finally, I heard a startled yelp from Yumi. Ulrich must have fallen on her from the scanner. _**Jeremy, ask if Ulrich's human again. They'll be expecting to hear that question from you.**_

"How's Ulrich?"

"He's fine, Jeremy!" Yumi answered, "He's human, but he's completely wiped out."

_Whew. __**Who's next?**_ I asked Jeremy, who relayed my question.

The answer was Odd. So, I ran the same program. The alert popped up again, and I got rid of it again. I knew what the alarm was about, of course: I was doing something that technically wasn't supposed to be possible.

It was William that got fallen on this time, if the sound was anything to go by.

I looked at Jeremy. _**It's time for me to fix Aelita. Do you want to be the one catching her?**_

He nodded.

_**Then go down to the scanner room. Take Turner with you; I can't talk to him.**_

"Turner?"

It was kind of funny watching Turner's head jerk up.

"Come on, we're going to the scanner room."

I watched them go into the elevator and the doors close. Then I turned back to the computer screen.

_Okay, I'm not going to wait for them to get there. I'm just going to run the program now._

I was getting a little tired of the repetition, but it was necessary. And…I could also return Aelita's memories while I was at it; I was the one who'd taken them in the first place, so I could give them back.

Two alerts popped up when I did that one. Either way, after about a minute, I heard Jeremy call up, "Aelita's out, Xana!"

_**Okay.**_ Then I started setting up a delay-start program, one that would separate me from Karen, send me into the cat, and return Karen to normal.

_**Jeremy, tell Turner to set the cat into the center scanner, and let me know when it's there so that I can close that one.**_

I didn't hear anything for a second. Then, Jeremy called up, "It's in, but you'd better close it quickly," I tapped a key, "I'm not sure how long it'll – oh, thanks. Yeah, it's in."

"He's making an awful lot of racket," Turner called, sounding worried.

_**He would. He doesn't know what's going on. Jeremy, William, Yumi? You'd better get down on the floor, because I'm not taking the elevator: I'm flying down the ladder opening, and I'll be going right over your heads.**_ I stretched out, aiming the tip of my tail for the enter key, and facing the ladder. As soon as I was sure of my position, I straightened my neck out and set my tail down on the enter key.

The countdown started, I flew up, over the hole, closed my wings, dove down the opening, spread my wings at a 45-degree angle, swooped up, turned hard left, and hit the back of the scanner. I barely had time to pull myself to a two-leg standing position, close my wings, and pull my tail inside the scanner before it closed.

Now all I had to do was trust the program I made.

* * *

**WILLIAM**

Well. _That_ was nerve-wracking. I got up and counted down in my head how long this would take. _One…two…three…four…_

I got to twenty before a scanner opened. It was the middle scanner; out stepped Turner's cat. It climbed out, shook itself, and looked up at all of us. The Eye of Xana was in each of its eyes.

"What about Karen?" I asked. "How's she?"

She…blinked.

I sighed and started counting again, trying to fight down the worry. Xana was trustworthy, right?

_Thirteen…fourteen…fifteen…_

I vaguely heard a few alarms go off upstairs, but before I could do anything, the scanner opened and Karen, fully human, fell out, unconscious.

I caught her before she hit the ground. "Come on," I ordered, "Let's get these guys back to Kadic."

* * *

"They're fine," Yolanda told us.

Ulrich, Odd, Aelita and Karen were all asleep in the infirmary. Turner had Xana on his shoulder.

"They're okay?" Yumi asked. "That's great!"

"Yes, though I'm not entirely sure when they'll wake up. This has been a very stressful time for them."

I nodded. "Well…Turner, were you going to release that cat?"

His head bounced up. "Huh? Oh. Yeah, come on Xana, let's find you some territory of your own."

She purred and rubbed against his head, probably the only way she could thank him.

Yolanda sent us out. "Go on, you still have classes to attend. I'll let you know when they wake up."


	18. Chapter 18

The End

* * *

**KAREN**

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling happy, though kind of frustrated. It had been a wonderful dream, but I couldn't remember it very well. And I wish I did, because it seemed like a future-predicting dream like I used to have.

"How are you feeling, Karen?"

I turned my head. William was sitting next to me. How long had he been here? "I'm okay. How'd it go?" Oh, it felt good to be speaking actual _words!_

"Everything went according to plan. Xana's a cat now, and Turner released her into the wild. Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita are back to normal, and they're already awake. Yolanda said you'd been through more, so of course you were still out."

I smiled at him. "So how long were you hanging around here?"

He smiled back. "About an hour now." Then his smile disappeared. "Karen…I…"

Suddenly, I knew what he was going to say. And I didn't want to hear it. All the other ways I'd tried to shut him up off his guilt trip hadn't permanently worked, so I did the only thing I hadn't tried yet: I kissed him on the lips. I felt a moment of triumph at succeeding, followed – once he started kissing me back – by a blast of emotions I'd only felt once before; just before I woke up just now, actually.

_Oh._ That _was what my dream had been telling me._

When we came up for air, I asked, "Does this mark you as forgiven now?"

He nodded, grinning like a mad fool. Which was okay, since I think that's what I was doing, too.

Now my life is completely perfect.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, this is the end! Now, if anyone's wondering what her dreams were doing, Xana had known Karen's frustration with never being able to be surprised. Therefore, when she was returning Karen's dreams, she'd set a program on them: the dreams would only be memorable if something big was going to happen, and by "big," she meant "life-threatening."**


End file.
